From The Principal

 

Kia ora koutou

Welcome back to a new term, and an especially warm welcome to the 12 new children who have already started at Rāwhiti this term. It is lovely to be catching up with children across the school and seeing them get stuck into their next set of learning goals. Our whole school learning theme for this term is ‘Playing With Ideas’ and has a major focus on the Science and Technology curriculum. We know that children enjoy problem solving, designing and inventing things and that these are essential skills in the world that we live in.

Term 2 is also when we begin to battle the winter weather and its associated colds and illness. For extra warmth we encourage children to wear a long sleeved black polyprop top under their Rāwhiti polo-shirt. Coloured and striped tops are not part of our uniform so please ensure that your children are dressed appropriately. Children are also welcome to bring a pair of slippers to wear indoors. As always, we suggest that all clothing is named.

The leadership team and I have been digesting and analysing various results from our 2016 data to look at progress and school wide trends. One of the things that we were most interested in after a year of being together on our home site was how our children were feeling about their new school.

To gather information about this all students in Years 4-8 completed the ‘Me and My School Survey’ in Term 4 of 2016. This survey is designed by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, is completely anonymous, and asks children to report their level of agreement to a series of statements. There are 36 questions in the survey, here are some of the results that we think will be of interest to you as parents:

• 75% of children feel proud to be at Rāwhiti School
• 86% of children feel like they are part of this school.
• 76 % of children said they feel safe at school
• 91% of our children feel they are treated fairly at school
• 91% of children said they have a lot of respect for their teachers
• 5% of children said the other children in their class accept them for who they are.
• 82% of children felt that their culture is treated with respect by others.

Are we happy with these results? Absolutely! Can we do better? Absolutely! Information like this from children guides our inquiry as to what we need to do next and helps us make decisions about how we allocate funds and resources. The survey will be repeated again in Term 4 of this year so that we can start to make comparisons over time. We look forward to sharing this information with you.

 

Ngā mihi nui

 

 

Principal Awards:

Noah B:          Tawhirimatea

School Notices

Accounts

 

School accounts have been emailed, or sent home today with your child.   If you have any queries or concerns please contact Cheryl in the school office.  The school office has eft-pos available or you may find internet banking more convenient.  Please put your child’s name as your reference.  Bank account 03 0814 0000 333 25.

Activity fees go towards the cost of experiences and services which are extra to the school’s curriculum obligations.  They also go towards curriculum based activities which involve a ‘take home’ component for students to keep.  Rāwhiti School’s activity fee is paid per activity.

We are very mindful of the difficult financial situations some of our families find themselves in and sensitive to parents who are struggling to afford their contribution to curriculum items for their child/ren.

We would encourage you to make regular weekly payments, ($5.00 – $10.00 per week), to help with activity fees (trips, winter sport, touch rugby, etc).     You could do this either by eftpos or cash in the school office or internet banking.  Our bank account details are 03 0814 0000333 25.  Please put your child’s name as a reference.  If you wish to make regular weekly payments your account is updated weekly and at any time we are able to give you a current balance.

We are very happy to work with you to ensure that all our Rāwhiti students are able to participate in curriculum linked activities that incur a cost.

School donations for 2017 have remained the same, $50.00 for one child, $80.00 per family for the full year.  This will show on your child’s account as a per term entry, and the Term 2 portion of the donation has now been added on to your account.    You are welcome to pay the full amount if you wish.  Income from school donations are an important part of the school budget and allow us to provide superior resources for your child/ren.  Payment of the donation is voluntary.

Internet banking is available – 03 0814 0000333 25.  Please put your child’s name as a reference.

 

Technicraft fees for our Year 7 & 8 students are $45.00 for the full year.  This is shown on your child’s account as a per term cost and the Term 2 portion has now been added to your account.  You are welcome to pay the full amount.   This fee covers the cost of materials used by your child for the things they make at Technicraft on Mondays.  The cost of transport to Technicraft is funded by the Ministry of Education.

Year 5 & 6 Waipara Camp was held in March.  If you still have an amount outstanding from your child’s camp costs please make arrangements to pay this as soon as possible.

Winter Sport starts on Friday 2^nd June.  The cost is $35.00 per player and your child has been asked to complete a form if they are interested in participating.  Please ensure this permission form is returned to school. Winter Sport is for Year 5 – 8 students.

 

The cost must be paid either in full before Winter Sport begins, or arrangements need to have been made with the office with regards to regular payments.   If payment has not been received, or arranged, your child will not be able to participate in winter sport.

 

Internet banking is available – 03 0814 0000333 25.  Please put your child’s name as a reference

Year 7 & 8 basketball starts on 30^th May.

The cost is $50.00 per player or $25.00 in Term 2 and $25.00 in Term 3.

Your child will have been given a form to bring home for you to complete.  Please ensure this is returned to school.

The cost for basketball must be paid either in full, or arrangements need to have been made with the office with regards to regular payments, to enable your child to participate.  If payment has not been received, or arranged, your child will not be able to participate.

 

Internet banking is available – 03 0814 0000333 25.  Please put your child’s name as a reference.

 

 

ICAS Tests

Some year 3 – 8 students have been offered the opportunity to enter the following competitions as extension school work.  You will have received a letter if your child has been selected.

 

The cost of this ICAS competition is $5.00, per subject, per child.  The children will do some preparation work before the competitions and will sit the paper here at school.

 

The dates for these competitions:                Digital Technologies Tuesday 23 May

Science                                   Tuesday 30 May

English                                    Tuesday 1 August

Mathematics              Tuesday 15 August

 

Court  Theatre  Matatihi Show– 14^th  June

 

The Court Theatre is bringing their production of Matatihi – Maia’s Journey of Bravery, to Rāwhiti School on 14^th June at 9.30am.  The cost per student is $3.00 with school subsiding the balance.  Payment is due by Friday 9^th June.  Thank you.

 

Strike Percussion Show

 

Strike percussion, New Zealand’s Premier Percussion Ensemble, is coming to school on Thursday 25th May.

They are going to be performing a concert for the whole school at 9am and then running workshops for the children in Years 4 – 8 during the rest of the day.

 

The charge for the concert is $2 per child and can be paid to the school office.  Payment is required by Friday 19th May.  Thank you.

 

The performance looks to be a really wonderful experience, if you would like to see a snippet of what the children will see, look them up on Youtube and search Strike for Schools.